This evening Sir Alan Anderson , of the Orient Line, is to describe the romance of the evolution of shipping in the last hundred years. He will take as his text the cost that enters into the plans of every problem of sea trade— the revenue and profit and loss. ' Rather a sad text today,' as he says, ' because shipowners are in the grip of deep depression '. In his talk today, and in a second talk next week, Sir Alan will explain the reasons for this deep depression-bad trade-the failure of competitors enabling new owners to buy ships at bankrupt prices and enter the competition at cut rates -the fortunes spent by various nations on uneconomic competition.
And finally, he will discuss the question of subsidies which no one pretends are a cure for the disease, though ' the experience of one year has shown that the tramp shipowners have learned the lesson of adversity and have been helped by their subsidy to enforce co-operation, and discipline in their own ranks '.